Pages

Advertisement

Advertisement - Mobile In-Article

Wednesday, 10 February 2016

Presidency Clarifies That Buhari Never Called Nigerians 'Criminals'

The State House has described as misconstrued, the various interpretations of President Muhammadu Buhari’s comments in an interview granted to the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper on February 5.

In a statement yesterday by his media aide, Mr. Garba Shehu, the presidency stated that the wave of negative reactions to the president’s remarks about the reputation of Nigerians abroad was as a result of an incomplete understanding of the president’s point.

Shehu said: “President Buhari was asked about the flood of migrants from Nigeria and the fraudulent applications for asylum put in by people desperate to leave their motherland at any cost, and it was this question that elicited his response.”

Shehu urged Nigerians to avail themselves of a full text of the interview, which he said was available on the Telegraph’s website.

He said it was preposterous for anyone to imagine that the President of Nigeria would describe all the citizens of the country he leads as “criminals”, when he himself is a Nigerian — obviously not a criminal — and when there are many Nigerians of honest living making their country proud all over the world.
“Unfortunately, there are also Nigerians giving their country a bad image abroad, and it is to those Nigerians that the president referred in his comments,” he said, adding that people might play politics and online games with the president’s comments, but the fact of the matter remained that Nigeria’s reputation abroad had been severely damaged by her own citizens.

“These Nigerians who leave their country to go and make mischief on foreign shores have given the rest of us a bad reputation that we daily struggle to overcome,” Shehu said.

He also drew attention to the many efforts of Buhari to clean up the image of Nigeria, such as the war against corruption, stating that acknowledging a problem was the first step to preferring a solution.
He said: “Buhari is very aware of the problems the people of Nigeria face both at home and abroad, and he is not shying away from admitting them, even as he focuses on solutions to bring them to a permanent end.”

-Guardian

The part of the Presidents interview which was miscontrued...I wonder who started the rumour that he called Nigerians Criminals.......WHO?

A number of Nigerians use the migrant routes to come to the UK to claim asylum, saying their lives are at risk from Boko Haram. Is is legitimate for them to do so?

"Some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back home, but then again some Nigerians have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in different prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking. I don't think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can remain at home. Their services are required to rebuild the country. If their countrymen misbehaved, the best thing for them is to stay at home and encourage the credibility of the nation."

82 comments:

Stella,one of the biggest problems we have in this country is our inability to source for information that is right there under our nose.I have said this earlier, our politicians know that an average Nigerian will not care to clarify issues before shouting wolf. Now,imagine how the world will be looking at us and yet we claim we are educated and all.

I have listened to that telegraph over and over again to the point that I was beginning to think that I have a problem with my ears. How,can someone like Sen Bruce be this stupid in misleading a whole lot of people and why did it take APC this long to clarify issues.We do not deserve anything good in this country and that is why we will continue to suffer for now.

Stella are you asking? I suspect Ben Bruce, he carried the matter for head, if he was truly an individual with common sense, he would have found the full text to ascertain first. He propelled/escalated it!

Let the ignoramus bunch continue to tell lies. Thank God for transcripts. That one on twitter should continue to exhibit his folly. I don't mind people who speak their minds, but do not distort facts just because you want to be social media popular.. or in a bid to be seen as 'bold and outspoken'. Misleading the public with lies should be a punishable offence sef. Cos some people rely on other people's findings without making their individual research. Lazy minded passive followers who cannot read. All they need to see is one statement from their "heros" and they'll circulate it blindly. Smh

Many Nigerians don't read and if they do,they don't comprehend. The ones that comprehend are already biased,so I'm not shocked. The fellow that wrote that long article in one of the comment sections made a monumental fool of herself ... I read the interview close to 10 times so as to pick out the said statement,no show!

I don't care about parties or persons but good governance and the truth!

Come to think of it,if it's not fraud in the UK,it's drug/ human trafficking in Malay or Singapore or terrorists in Bornu. Let's open our hearts and try to be better persons.

Seriously, and yet most of them kept virgil all night making hash tags. What would it have cost to spare few seconds and listen or even read the lifted interview. And people have come here to rain insults and abuses on their entire lineage.

You see this whole thing they are talking about the National Budget,,,it is a very big lie. This is the first time the budget is taking the common man into consideration but yet PDP is using the same masses to frustrate the budget. Let's keep delaying ourselves, Nigeria will soon come to a halt.

Have u sat down and gone thru that budget very well?? Have you seen the figures that are there?? And the fact that which ever one is criticized the minister in charge of it comes out and disassociate their self from it claiming it has been tampered with??

Why is there a budget for aso rock?? Why is Antivirus taking over 200m naira. Why is fashion meetings costing over 500m. This is different from what he need to maintain his ministries.. Why is kitchen utensils costing 80m naira plus..

Please the budget should be scrutinized very well until the real figures are brought out. I'm glad that we now have good legislature that are taking time to go thru the budget of which most of them are apc.

This is the change that was voted in.. Not people smuggling in their own money to rob Nigeria in broad day light

Fab mum? How much did GEJ spend on his own kitchen budget and how many of you scrutinised patience for making away with properties from the presidency.This budget is a saint compared to what we had before now even with the whole economic situation. How much did the past administration spend in buying kitchen utensils "is it not above 200million" and what was dollar rate then?Do you expect the presidency to cook with firewood and ite ona (fabricated earthen pot?). Ask Stella how much the pots she use to cook in her kitchen costs.As for the antivirus,,,i don't know if all most Nigerians know is to walk down the market and buy 200naira something. There are sophisticated anti virus that can cost up to that. You might think it is outrageous but check the loss and how much will be lost if the anivirus is not strong.

The major outrage was about to 10billion in the Education ministry that wasn't traced to any project. It has now been clarified that it was a typographical error. The money is actually for Unicef project /child education fund. They just typed the figure and omitted the project it is meant for. That's from the national budget planning members. We keep delaying ourself, ,, the only way Nigerians will be pleased is when you give up your life serving them. That's when they will come and start singing praises and halleluyaa.

Buhari is still the best thing that happened to us,our only hope of at least moving forward after all these years. The least we can do is to support atleast a reasonable person. If you are waiting to see 100k for kitchen utensils, that ain't happening and the sooner we start being rational the better for us.You cannot come out from the gutters and expect to be sparkling clean in a second. It is actually irrational. One step at a time.

I know of an anti virus that costs 2 billion dollars, and that was the price in 2001. I don't think we should limit the budget to just what we think we know. I know people that the only anti virus they know is those 200 naira CD they buy from a wheelbarrow vendour. We can't judge the national budget on that standard. Probr and find out what type of anti virus they are budgeting for and then make argument based on that.

Shut your stupid brain. He is truthful and not a liar like you. You think he is like you who will rather pee and poo on her pants when faced with an opponent yet you come to social media and be throwing comments like a lion when you are a wall gheko in real life.

Seriously! I don't even understand Nigerians. I have gone to read up the interview.I guess we like negative energy because you cannot tell me that majority of Nigerians cannot understand English. Yet they claim Buhari no sabi speak english.

Kemi learn to settle down when you are typing. Proof read and ensure that punctuation marks are in place before you click on publish. Give or take, you spend an extra one or two minutes doing so but your comment, if it's reasonable will still be published.

I am not Mrs Oxford, neither am I related to Mr Longman. Just saying though.......

I said it. People never bothered to read the full telegraph. Only chose to pick an excerpt and twist it to suit what they wanted to believe. Even with this clarification, some would still say he said it and is trying to do damage control. Just watch.

Stella Dimoko Korkus, the President never called Nigerians criminals.This thing is a continuous campaign of hatred by 2 groups of people.1. Disciples of corruption. 2. Igbo people from my state especially. It is all a plan to rubbish the man.They must have all been benefiting from the PDP bazaar of before

I watched the recap of this interview on channels TV at the weekend. I did not hear the president call Nigerians criminals. Ben Bruce and other PdP wailers start the stupid # tags because they are scared of hearing the truth. They misquote every speech of president buhari. I really don't care as long as I did not hear it from the president. I know Falling from ruling party to opposition can be very challenging but being a weeping and lying opposition is does more damage. Mr common sense Senate is the chief wailer using the power of social media to create a more damaging # tags.

see what the quote " Nigeria's president has warned his fellow citizens to stop trying to make asylum claims in Britain, saying that their reputation for criminality has made it hard for them to be "accepted" abroad. Now if people are saying he didn't make the sentence then who did? I'm not a fan of Benbruce, I'm not an APC OR PDP supporter. Who made the statement? or did the Telegraph reporter just assumed things and came up with statement ?. Don't like people cussing people that they can't think or read / comprehend. if u think your better than them then ur jst proud.. God Opposes Proud people